Tips Harnessing the Power of LinkedIn for Your Business

Harnessing the Power of LinkedIn

Jennifer Culbertson | Looking Glass Marketing October 22, 2013

What We’ll Cover Today

Why LinkedIn?

Tips for Improving Personal Profile

Get More Out of Company Pages on LinkedIn Using LinkedIn Analytics

Q & A

LinkedIn Background

• World’s largest professional networking site

• It is one of the leading go to social media resources

• More than 85 million members in more than 200 countries

LinkedIn Statistics

• 40% of users check LinkedIn daily • Average time user spends on LinkedIn – 17 minutes • 3 million LinkedIn Company pages • 1.2 million products/services showcased on LinkedIn

Company pages • 1.5 million LinkedIn groups • 1 billion total LinkedIn endorsements • Only 50.5% of users have ‘complete profiles’ as defined by

LinkedIn • 90.9% prefer using the Free version

B2B Statistics on LinkedIn

• LinkedIn is 227% more

effective for B2B lead

generation than Twitter

and Facebook - (Hubspot)

How Can LinkedIn Help You?

• 77% users say LinkedIn helped them research people and companies

• 69% said that it helped reconnect with past business associates

• 50% said it was good for building new network relationships with individuals who may influence potential customers

Source - LinkedIn

Why Should You Care?

• Improve SEO and online presence (Google typically scores optimized LinkedIn profiles high)

• Provides unique and targeted networking/relationship-building opportunities

• Enhance your credibility and influence

• Earn trust and recommendations

• Generate more leads and build more business!

Tips for Improving Your Personal Profile

Typical Issues with Profiles

Not displaying your photo

Headline doesn’t describe what you do

Status updates are not appealing

Not having at least 3 recommendations

No effort to make connections

Not listing 3 websites

Not claiming your personal URL

Summary lacks rich keywords

• What makes your profile complete?

– Your industry and location

– An up-to-date current position (with a description)

– Two past positions

– Your education

– Your skills (minimum of 3)

– A profile photo

– At least 50 connections

• LinkedIn favors:

– Profiles that are complete

– Networks of connected people

– LinkedIn groups

– Profiles chock-full of the same keyword(s) - Name, Headline, Company Name, Job Title and Skills

Complete Profile

Professional Photo

• Professional Photo - This will make your profile 7x more likely to be viewed

– Photo should be formal and professional

– Format - JPG, GIF or PNG file

– File size - 4MB maximum

– Pixel size - 80 x 80 minimum and 500 x 500 maximum

Write a Descriptive Headline

3 LinkedIn Headline Tips 1. First think value proposition –

How do you provide value? 2. Think target audience – Whom do

you provide value for and who will read this?

3. Included keywords – Include keywords in your headline that you think people will do searches for

• LinkedIn will create a public profile address for you.

• Not really memorable or likely to get you found on Google.

Personalize Your URL

TIP: Don’t use your company name in your LinkedIn URL. A

better choice is use your full name or Twitter username.

Customize Your Websites

TIP: Choose “Other”— regardless of what kind of website it

is. This will allow you to insert your own title and be more

specific.

Connect Your Twitter Account

TIP: Go to Settings, add Twitter account.

Complete Your Experience/Summary

TIP: Write your summary in the third person. Otherwise,

you’ll be using the letter “I” quite a bit.

Add Work Samples • Add samples to the Summary, Education, and Experience sections on your profile

• Presentations, eBooks, blog posts, videos, etc.

List Work History

TIPS: List at least 2-3 past positions. If your company

appears in the drop down once you type, click on it to

ensure you get grouped with fellow employees.

Add Educational Achievements

Make Your Profile Public

TIP: Be visible to ‘Everyone’ in the effort to build your network.

Make Connections

• Connections - Connections are two-way relationships of trust between people who know each other.

• You will want to connect with co-workers, colleagues, classmates and friends – Invite contacts you know through email

to connect with you • They will have to accept your invitation • Personalize the invitation to someone you

met at a networking event “It was really great meeting you today, I would like to add you to my professional network”

• How many connections? – Some say 10 times your age – Average around 300 or so

Get Endorsed

• Endorsements - This is where you can portray your specific skills

• Connections will be able to endorse you for the skills that are relevant

– Endorse someone in your network for a skill

• This will increase the likelihood that they will reciprocate

– Make sure you only endorse someone for skills that you know they possess

– You can hide endorsements as well

LinkedIn Groups

• Groups provide a social network for people to share similar interests

• Groups are a top feature of what users like in LinkedIn

• Research groups to join

• Look for groups in your target audience

• Start your own group to host discussion

Leverage LinkedIn Groups

• If you're a member of the same group as another user, you can bypass the need to be a first-degree connection in order to message them.

• Group members are also able to view the profiles of other members of the same group without being connected.

• Join more groups to enable more messaging and profile viewership capabilities.

Optimize Company Page

• Exposure and Visibility - Company page gives more exposure and visibility

to your business, products or services.

• Gain Followers - This will allow your page followers to be able to keep in track of your company news, status updates and/or announcements.

• Add products and services - You can also add videos to each of your product or service listings. This gives you the ability and opportunity to showcase what you can do and what you have to offer.

• Recommendations - Company pages also have recommendations just like your own profile. Satisfied customers can now easily recommend you, your products and services

• Lead Generation – Utilize LinkedIn advertising and Sponsored Updates to reach your target audience. Drive people back to your website – capture leads via online forms and landing pages

Reasons to Have Company Page

Generate Leads

• LinkedIn can help you generate leads!

• According to HubSpot, LinkedIn generates the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate than both Twitter and Facebook

• Get the most out of LinkedIn for lead generation:

– Maximize Company Page

– Consistent Status Updates

– Utilize LinkedIn Groups

– LinkedIn Ads

Get More Out of Company Pages

Company Image

• Capture attention with a fantastic cover image

• Pay Attention to Specialties section of your company description, you will want to use relevant keywords for your company so you’ll be found in LinkedIn searches

Company Description

– Add images – Talk about how

users can benefit from your product or services

– Make sure your most important product/service is listed first

– Add videos and offers

Company Products and Services

Collect Recommendations

• Ask for product and service reviews

• Users can leave a recommendation for anything you feature within the Products & Services tab of your Company Page

• Generate reviews of your marketing offers too if you choose to list them in promotions

• BONUS – Use LinkedIn recommendations you've collected as testimonials on your website.

Add Company Follow and LinkedIn Share Buttons to Website

• Promote your company's LinkedIn presence and help grow the reach of your Company Page by adding the Company Follow button to your website.

• Consider adding the LinkedIn share button to your various content assets like blog posts, emails, and landing pages to extend the reach of your content to LinkedIn users.

• You can post and share items like company news, events, promotions, relevant industry articles, and YouTube videos

• What should I post? LinkedIn members are interested in: – 60% are interested in industry

insights – 53% are interested in company news – 43% are interested in new products

and services • Time your status updates - LinkedIn’s

busiest hours are morning and mid-day, Monday through Friday

• Post regularly and consistently • Post up to 700 characters! • Best Practices for Status Updates:

http://help.linkedin.com/ci/fattach/get/2352183/0/filename/Company_Pages_Status_Updates.pdf

Company Status Updates

Sponsored Updates

• Paid Sponsored Updates allow you to promote your message to others outside your company page following

• Target your update by location, company, job title, skills, group, gender or age

• Appear in the natural flow of a member’s newsfeed among other shared pieces of content and profile updates.

• Include a call to action to “follow” the brand behind the update or interact with the post in the usual ways (“like,” comment, or share).

• Access statistics for any LinkedIn Group -- even those you're not a member of!

• LinkedIn Group Statistics – How many members – Demographics including locations,

seniority, function, and industry

• Use this data to analyze the makeup of a group before you decide to join

• Identify which LinkedIn Groups you should target in your LinkedIn ads

• Gather insights about your buyer personas to help you do better marketing outside of LinkedIn

Use Group Stats for Better Targeting

Email and Poll LinkedIn Groups

• Email to Members in Groups - Did you know if you manage a LinkedIn Group you can literally email the members of your group -- up to once per week? This email takes the form of LinkedIn Announcements, which are messages sent directly to the email inbox of the members of your LinkedIn Group.

• Poll Group Members - Go to the group you want to publish a poll, hit 'Poll', enter your question, and schedule for how long you'd like your poll to run.

• Use polls to generate blog and content fodder, get feedback, conduct research, attract new group members, or get ideas for new marketing offers.

• Company Buzz application allows you to track what people are saying about your company and related topics on Twitter.

• Install the application and customize your topics to view tweets, trends, and top keywords.

• Link: http://www.linkedin.com/opensocialInstallation/preview?_ch_panel_id=1&_applicationId=1000

Track Company Buzz

LinkedIn Ads

• Compliment Organic Search with paid LinkedIn Ads

• Typically display format, leveraging well-marked areas of the page that visitors have been conditioned to recognize as ad space

• Benefits: – LinkedIn’s PPC ads let you target specific job titles, job

functions, industries, or company size, to name a few options -- you know, the people who are more likely to need what you sell.

– Relatively new and less expensive, the competition is much lower than Google

Use LinkedIn Your Day Feature

• Click on “Your Day” and you’ll find that it’s much easier to see who has good news to share.

• Provides great opportunity to stay in touch in network and communicate

Using LinkedIn Company Page Analytics

Using Company Page Analytics

• Key features of the new Company Page analytics include:

– Access to see the overall performance, key metrics and engagement of all updates in one location

– Ability to measure against your competitors and benchmark data

– Gain demographics on the followers to the Page

– Dive deeper into each specific LinkedIn Updates and Sponsored Updates

Types of Analytics

• Updates

• Reach/Engagement

• Follower Demographics

Final Thoughts

Update personal profile to 100% complete Continue to make Connections Actively get endorsements Join and be active in Groups Update Company page Ask for Company recommendations Actively post Company Status Updates Share and expand reach with Sponsored Updates Extend reach with LinkedIn ads Monitor progress with Analytics

Wrap Up

• Marketing consulting with expertise working with Microsoft Dynamics partner organizations.

• Services include:

– Virtual Marketing Director program

– On-demand Marketing Resource Desk via Email

– Marketing Execution and Project Management

– Writing/Content Development (Case Studies, Blogs, Web Content)

• Questions? Contact me:

• Jennifer Culbertson jennifer@lookingglassmarketing.com 614-453-5927

Wrap Up

• Drawing! Provide your email/business card to me and enter to win a free month of Marketing Resource Desk services.

• Complete your evaluation form!

Please fill out your evaluation.

THANK YOU